Ian Bairnson - stage and studio played 1991 Paul Reed Smith ...

Hammer

£6,200

Ian Bairnson - stage and studio played 1991 Paul Reed Smith (PRS) CE24 electric guitar, made in USA, ser. no. 175137; Body: Lake Placid blue finish, surface blemish between pickups, further minor dings, light buckle scratching to back; Neck: maple; Fretboard: maple, surface blemish to second fret position; Frets: mild wear; Electrics: working, although some jack intermittence, Bairnson installed dragon pickups; Hardware: generally good, some green oxidisation to metal hardware, trem arm missing; Case: original hard case; Weight: 3.53kg; Overall condition: good for age

*Used by Ian for all the Alan Parsons Project tours from 1993 to 1995. He also used it to play the solo on Beverley Craven's track "Look No Further". Ian referred to this guitar fondly as "Blue Boy" because of the intensity of the blue finish and personally fitted "Dragon" pickups to give it "a little more kick." 

See video of Ian using this guitar here: https://youtu.be/FvEBXGMrZuI?si=U5UcQYZ3TFSI2htF

John "Ian" Bairnson (3rd August 1953 – 7th April 2023) was a Scottish musician, best known as a member of Pilot and the Alan Parsons Project. He was a multi-instrumentalist, who played saxophone and keyboards, although he was best known as a guitarist. He started his career as a session guitarist, before joining up with former Bay City Rollers' David Paton and Billy Lyall to form the band Pilot in 1973. His time with Pilot saw the release of the two hit singles, ‘Magic’ and ‘January’, the latter reaching number one in the UK and other global charts. Both of these singles have since become grounded as classic tracks from the era.

 Whilst with Pilot, he started his collaboration with the record producer Alan Parsons on their debut self-titled album. It was this relationship that helped incorporate most of the members into band. One distinctive guitar solo of note was on the track 'I Wouldn't Want to be Like You' that featured in the 1977 film 'I Robot'

 From 1978, Bairnson started sessions with Kate Bush, recording guitars on her first four albums, 'The Kick Inside', 'Lion Heart', 'Never for Ever' and 'The Dreaming'. The most notable track featuring Ian’s work was her chart topping debut single 'Wuthering Heights', where he can be heard playing his 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom on the solo towards the end of the song.  Wuthering heights stayed at the top of the UK charts for four weeks. The success of this track and the debut album (‘The Kick Inside’) on which it features, firmly launched her to international stardom.

Bairnson also played with Bucks Fizz, for whom he co-wrote their top twenty hits 'If You Can't Stand the Heat' and 'Run For Your Life'. During his session career, he played on more than one hundred albums within different genres for artists such as Yvonne Keeley, Joe Cocker, John Anderson, Chris de Burgh, Mick Fleetwood and Neil Diamond, as well as playing live with Sting, Eric Clapton, Beverley Craven and many more.